Wizard!

Dumbledore wonders how they'll deliver his cutWhen I did that round of TV appearances the other day for various “Harry Potter” stories, everyone asked the same question: Do you think the franchise still has the same drawing power that it used to, now that the books are done and the kids are all atwitter about “Twilight”?

I imagined it would, since the absence of new books would likely make fans that much more eager for new movies; sure, they know what’s going to happen from moment to moment, but they just want to see their Hogwarts pals again — you know, hang out in the library, maybe catch a Quidditch match. And this movie, being rather low on action and high on atmosphere, will cater to that quite nicely.

Indeed it has: According to the AP, “The Half-Blood Prince” pulled in $159.7 million in its first five days, outdoing the last film, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, by something like $20 million and putting in on track to be the biggest hit in the series since the first installment. And this movie is really quite good, so that’s even better.

In other news, “Bruno” took a considerable hit in its second weekend, dropping 73% to land in fourth place with just $8.4 million. That, too, is a good sign. I mean, it’s still made its budget back and everything, but … well, it can just go away now.